Analysis of Two Translated Versions from the Perspective of Translators’ Subjectivity.doc

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during thewriting of this thesis.A special acknowledgement should be shown to Professor Hu,from whose lectures I benefited greatly.I am particularly indebted to my supervisorDr.Zhang,who gave me kind encouragement and useful instructions all through mywriting.Finally I wish to extend my thanks to the library assistants who supplied mewith reference materials of great value.摘摘要要文化转向的出现使得译者处于翻译过程中最活跃的位置这一事实得到明确。本论文以译者主体性原则为理论基础来对比王尔德童话的两个中译本，分析两位译者：巴金和谈瀛洲的不同表现手法与风格。译者对翻译原则的不同选择会造成多样的翻译特点：巴金偏向忠实的翻译原则，而谈瀛洲更为灵活。两人的个人经历也有一定影响：巴金的翻译风格与其写作类似，充满社会活动家的忧虑与革命斗士的激情；而谈瀛洲则将其在研究工作中所得知识融入翻译中。翻译活动还受到外部客观因素，如历史背景的制约。巴金的译文具有很强的时代特色，同时体现当时的旧语言环境；谈瀛洲的译文则整体使用现代汉语，符合现代读者的阅读习惯。读者意识也会影响译者的表达。巴金面向受教育青年及革命家，使用了许多书面词汇，而谈瀛洲面向全年龄读者，以生动的语言进行翻译，使原文内容便于理解。此外，本论文还探讨了误译的出现和产生原因，认为充分发挥译者主体性是翻译活动成功的重要因素，只有如此，译者才能最大程度地进行创新性实践与审美性创造，使翻译作品得到完善。关键词关键词：译者主体性；王尔德童话；中译本；巴金；谈瀛洲ABSTRACTIn the 1970s,the“cultural turn”that appeared in western translation studiesemphasized the study of translators and their subjectivity.This change made it clearthat translators are the subject of translation and that they are always in the mostactive position of the whole process.In view of the principle of translators subjectivity,this thesis compares twoChinese versions of Oscar Wildes tales and analyzes Ba Jin and Tan Yingzhousdifferent expressing techniques and translating styles.Different choice of translatingprinciples or translators diverse experience of life causes differences in translations.Ba Jin preferred literal translation and was more faithful to the source text,while TanYingzhou tended to be more flexible.Ba Jins translating style was similar to hiswritings,full of worries of a social activist and the passion of a revolutionary fighter,while Tan Yingzhou integrated the knowledge he gained in research works in histranslations.Translation activities are also constrained by external objective factors,such ashistorical environment and the awareness of readers.Ba Jins translation kept thecharacteristics of the time,and was full of classical Chinese writing style,while TanYingzhou used modern Chinese.Ba Jin showed awareness of his target readers beingeducated people and revolutionaries,and Tan Yingzhou adopted words that can beeasily understood to make his translation vivid and suitable for all ages.In addition,this thesis discusses the emergence and causes of misinterpretation,holding thatgiving full play to translators subjectivity is a significant factor in the success oftranslation activities.Only by knowing that can translators,to the great extent,carryout innovative practices and aesthetic creations,thus perfect the translations.Key words:translators subjectivity,Wildes tales,Chinese translation,Ba Jin,TanYingzhouCONTENTSSTATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY.错误！未定义书签。错误！未定义书签。ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.iiABSTRACT IN CHINESE.iiiABSTRACT IN ENGLISH.vCONTENTS.viChapter 1 Introduction.11.1 Background and aim of the study.11.2 Object of the study.21.3 Framework of the study.3Chapter 2 Literature Review.52.1 Studies on translatorssubjectivity at home and abroad.52.2 Studies on the Chinese translations of Wildes tales.6Chapter 3 Analysis of Two Translated Versions from the Perspective ofTranslators Subjectivity.83.1 Translatorsinitiative.83.1.1 Translatorstranslating principles.83.1.2 Translatorsindividual experience.103.2 Objective factors that influence translators.133.2.1 Historical background.133.2.2Awareness of readers.163.3 Distinguishing translatorssubjectivity from misinterpretation.183.3.1Addition or omission.183.3.2 Mistaken translation.20Chapter 4 Conclusion.22Bibliography.24Chapter 1 IntroductionIt was widely recognized that it was the“cultural turn”that helped the study oftranslators gain its deserved attention.With the study of translators subjectivity beingrecognized and as it is on its upgrade,this thesis aims to make a comparison betweentwo Chinese versions of Oscar Wildes tales,respectively translated by Ba Jin and TanYingzhou,to prove the significant role that translators subjectivity takes in theprocess of translation.1.1 Background and aim of the studyConventional translation theories devote particular care to faithfulness,puttingsource text and original author to a supreme position,stressing that target text must betransparent and translators must be invisible.Under such a concept,translators areonly required to reproduce the original text step by step.With their subjectiveawareness being hidden like this,there is absolutely no translators subjectivity tospeak of.Owing to the cultural turn,we realize that translation,essentially,is a procedureof translators continuously choosing of proper means of expression,and it istranslators who are always in the most active position of the whole process.As translators subjectivity becomes much more accounted of,considering thesignificant role it takes during translation,this thesis explores how various factorsinfluence translators initiative when they try to perfect their translated works.At thesame time,the thesis aims to emphasize that translatorssubjectivity cannot be exertedunlimitedly and arbitrarily.Only when translators correctly understand and reasonablydeal with the restrictive factors can they maximize the efficiency of their subjectivityand create excellent translation works.1.2 Object of the studyOscar Wilde is a well-known British fairy tale writer in the 19thcentury.Borninto a noble family in Dublin,Ireland,he had an artistic talent under his brilliantparents influences.The aestheticism in Wildes view of art was gradually formedduring his study at Oxford University.Greatly affected by the aesthetic,Wilde alsocame into contact with the works of Neo-Hegelian Philosophy,Darwinian theory andpre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,which sets ways for him to become a pioneer writer ofaestheticism.Later,however,the middle class,who centred on rational,pragmatic andutilitarian ideas,attacked Wildes concept of aestheticism as an empty and uselessfantasy.The middle class started an ideological trend of anti-estheticism in Britain,giving him a terrible reputation in Britain.He had no choices but boarded the cruiseship to the United States.With a good fortune befalling him,Wilde regained hisreputation through an excellent lecture tour in the United States and also obtained love,marriage and two children.It was in this year that he began to churn out fairy talessuch as The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose.Wildes tales are never similar to the well-known tales written by BrothersGrimm or Hans Christian Andersen,but are full of both poetic quality and ruthlesssatires.His tales bravely expose the cold reality and the cruel truth of society,unsparingly tearing away the hypocritical mask of life.As a result,at the early days ofthe 1990s,a number of Chinese men of letters and revolutionaries,such as ZhouZuoren,Lin Huiyin and so on,started to translate his tales into Chinese andintroduced them to China as a weapon to fight against the feudal autocratic forces,toexpose the darkness of the old society,and to awaken the Chinese youth to start activeresistance.Among their works,Ba Jins translation,published in 1948,is the firstunabridged translating collection of Wildes tales,and it is also highly recognized asthe best version of all times.As time goes on,the translation of Wildes talescontinued to grow to reach the demands of Chinese readers and the whole market,andin 2015,Tan Yingzhou,as a dedicated researcher of Wilde himself and his works,published his own version which combines his years of researching experience andpersonal style.Up to June 2019,Tan Yingzhous translation has already been reprintedfor seventeen times.With the time gap being 68 years between the two versions oftranslations,there is absolutely a necessity to make a comparison and to conduct afurther study on them.1.3 Framework of the studyThe thesis consists of four parts.The first chapter is a brief introduction to thebackground,aim and study object of the thesis.The second chapter functions asliterature review,showing the studies that are concerned about the subject at homeand abroad.The third part comes to the comparative analysis of two translations ofWildes tales from the view of translators subjectivity.This part explores the factorsthat restrict the functioning of translatorssubjectivity and the ways how it is affected,pointing out how the effects are reflected in the translations.The last chapter gives asumming-up of the whole thesis on account of the foregoing analyses.Chapter 2 Literature Review2.1 Studies on translatorssubjectivity at home and abroadIn the 1970s,a cultural turn appeared in western translation studies,especiallyrepresented by Susan Bassnetts Translation,History and Culture(Robinson)1.Thisgave impetus to the turning of translation studies from the language aspect to thecultural aspect,and from the source language study to the target language study.It isfound that translation is not a simple procedure of conversion,but full of creations.This thus gave full attention to the subject initiative of translators.The research on translators subjectivity became recurrent by degrees.Manytranslation schools re-confirmed translators place and dignity,and various moderntranslation theories such as Functional Theory,Descriptive Theory,and Hermeneutics,all began to query the position of the source text,and stated that it is the translatorswho stay at the major place during translating.Lawrence Venuti also raised that thebehaviour of keeping translators invisible during translating is improper.GeorgeSteiners four steps of translation based on hermeneutic analysis reflect the existenceof translators and their roles in the process of translation.Antoine Berman alsoclaimed in his work Toward a Translation Criticism:John Donne that translationcriticism should consider translators as the starting point(Mu and Lan 3)1.In China,scholars began to study the subjectivity of translators in the early1990s,with YuanLi,GaoNing,ZhaMingjianandChenDaliangbeingrepresentatives.Zhu Yuee(2010)stated that the intervention of the translatorssubjectivity can be found almost everywhere,which was helpful to establishsymbiosis among languages,and to maintain the national cultural personality as wellas the cultural diversity worldwide.From theoretical perspectives,Tong Tingting(2009)discussed the expressionand reflection of the translators subjectivity in literary translation from theperspective of hermeneutics in terms of grasping the source text,dynamicunderstanding,and choosing translating priciples.Tang Jun and Li Haijun talked about the character that the Chinese translatorstook in scientific and technological translation.Other than these,Xu Jun and HuGengshen also wrote treatises on the subjectivity of translators respectively.2.2 Studies on the Chinese translations of Wildes talesSeveralresearchersstudiedandwrotemonographsabouttheChinesetranslations of Wildes tales,and among them Ba Jins translation was discussed mostfrequently.It was often used as a typical example in comparative studies.Lin Yanhua(2012)and Gao Ge(2013)compared Ba Jins version with Su Fuzhongs translation.From the perspective of Nords principle of function plus loyalty,Lin Yanhua came tothe conclusion that the latter version was better than the former for Su Fuzhong hadmade the translation easier for children to read.Based on the functionalist translationtheory,Gao Ge thought that both translators successfully achieved their translatingpurposes.Yuan Limei(2012)compared Ba Jins translation with Zhou Zuorens,holdingthat translators subjectivity was largely constrained by the external objectiveenvironment,but the latter cannot completely dominate the former.On the one hand,translators specific translation activities responded to the demands of the social andhistorical context;on the other hand,it reflected the individuals understanding andfocused on the context of the times.Chapter 3 Analysis of Two Translated Versions from the Perspectiveof Translators Subjectivity3.1 TranslatorsinitiativeTranslators subjective initiatives,such as the translating principles they chooseand the individual experience they have,may greatly affect their translating styles,habits,and characteristics.Here are the examples.3.1.1 Translatorstranslating principlesWhile translating,the principles that chosen by translators vary from person toperson.Translating principles can set tones for the target texts,expressing translatorstranslating styles,habits,understandings and attitudes of the source texts.Manyfactors affect the choosing of translating principles,such as translating preference,target readers,translating purpose,translating strategy and so on.Living in an age thaturgently needed exploration,Ba Jin hoped to find ways in western works andintroduce these stories to Chinese people.Therefore,he was especially careful in thechoice of each word in target texts,mostly following the principle of faithfulness,andtrying to better transmit their true meaning.Decades later,Tan Yingzhou was moreflexible when it came to modern readers,in order to adapt to their new reading stylesand habits.(1)Original text:“Its quite clear that they love each other,”said the little Page,“asclear as crystal!”and the King doubled his salary a second time.(Wilde 34)巴译：“他们分明互相爱着，就跟水晶一样的洁白！”那个小侍从又说，国王第二次下令给他加薪3。（Ba 113）谈译：“他们显然相爱着。”青年侍从又说，“因为水晶杯子依然清澈，就像他们的心地一样透明！”于是国王又把他的薪资增加了一倍4。(Tan 49)(2)Original text:.and their mother,who was pure white with real red legs,wastrying to teach them how to stand on their heads in the water2.(Wilde 22)巴译：他们的母亲全身纯白，配上一对真正的红腿，她正在教他们怎样在水中倒立3。（Ba 75）谈译：他们的母亲全身纯白，配上一对鲜红的腿，正在教他们在水中倒立。（Tan32）Example(1)is from The Remarkable Rocket.In the previous story,it is claimedthat only true lovers like the Prince and the Princess are able to drink out of the cupwith it staying crystal clear,otherwise it will turn gray.So it is not hard to infer thatthe word“crystal”in the first example indicates the crystal cup.Ba Jin showed hispreference in literal translation and faithfully translated the simile into“就跟水晶一样的洁白”,showing the authors intention to use the image of crystal to describe theirpure and flawless love.But Tan Yingzhou here neglected the original order andemployed“水晶杯子”,changing the“cup”into the tenor and their“hearts”into thevehicle,giving readers the reason why the Page said so,making it clearer and moreunderstandable.Example(2)is from A Devoted Friend,depicting the appearance of the Duck byportraying its bright colors.In Ba Jins target text,the“real red legs”was directlytranslated into“真正的红腿”.The using of word-for-word translation sometimes cannot effectively pass on the spirit or intendment of the original work and makes thetranslation harsh for readers to understand,for there is no such a way of speaking inreal life.According to dictionary,“real”can be used before nouns to emphasize a stateor quality.Therefore,“real”here does not mean“true”or“not imagined”,butempha